Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Rio (RIO), Turquoise (TRQ) Gets Power at Oyu Tolgoi

Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO) and partner Turquoise Hill Resources (NYSE: TRQ) had good news to announce Monday as the challenge of obtaining the required power to run the mine was successfully navigated. The partners are now set to begin production on the mine in the early part of 2013.

The agreement put in place is a $6 billion deal with Inner Mongolia Power Corp. The deal was held up by differences between Mongolia and China, where much of the power will be provided from.

In as early as six weeks the first ore from Oyu Tolgoi will be processed by Turquoise Hill Resources. The company confirmed its projections of commercial production beginning sometime in early part of next year.

Goals for Turquoise Hill are to have the Oyu Tolgoi mine in full production by 2018. Estimates are it'll cost from $3 billion to $4 billion for the company to accomplish the task.

Underground mining is expected to start in 2016, after a feasibility study is released by Turquoise Hill in 2013.

Annual production estimates for the mine are for 1.2 billion pounds of copper, 650,000 ounces of gold and 3 million ounces of silver.

Turquoise Hill Resources, which owns the mine with the Mongolian government and Rio Tinto, hold a 66 percent stake in Oyu Tolgoi. Rio is running the operations.

Rio and Turqoise still face some uncertainties as the government has asked for Turquoise Hill to renegotiate the contract in place, something the company at this time has refused to do. Until that is solved, a cloud will of uncertainty will hang over the deal.

Once the uncertainty is removed and commercial production begins, Turquoise Hill Resources, especially, should take off in a major way on its share price. It could be one of the biggest mining success stories for many years, bringing shareholders some major success.